The latest national CNN poll, released earlier this month, offered unwelcome news for the White House: Donald Trump’s approval rating for his handling of the economy fell to just 31% — the lowest across both of the Republican president’s two terms — while 27% of Americans approved of his handling of inflation.....

With data like this in mind, it’s not surprising that Team Trump seems to realize that it has a problem. Whether it knows what to do about that problem is another matter entirely.

When Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, for example, was asked Thursday about public attitudes, he replied, in reference to American consumers, “in their heart of hearts they feel good,” regardless of what they tell “the survey people.”

Link to tweet

Trump’s message was hardly better. During a brief Q&A with reporters at the White House on Thursday afternoon, the president was asked how much longer consumers should expect to see high gas prices. The Republican challenged the premise of the question.

Q: How much longer will American continue to see these high gas prices?

TRUMP: Well, they're not very high

Q: a gallon still

TRUMP: That's what ABC says, but the stock market is up. Everything is doing really well.

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-04-16T20:47:05.369Z

......Taken together, it seemed as if Trump and his team decided the way to change public attitudes is to try to pull some kind of Jedi mind trick, telling people upset about the economy that the economy is great, telling people upset about high gas prices that gas prices are low, and telling people upset about inflation that inflation is “fake.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune was asked this week about the White House picking a fight with Pope Leo XIV, and the South Dakota Republican replied, “I’d stay focused on … the economic issues, pocketbook issues that most Americans care about, and let the church be the church.” That wasn’t bad advice, but it’d be more effective if Trump and his team had a more coherent message on economic issues.